This morning we activated Safety Check for people affected by the earthquake in Nepal.

It's a simple way to let family and friends know you're okay.
If you're in one of the areas affected by the earthquake, you'll get a notification asking if you're safe, and whether you want to check on any of your friends.
When disasters happen, people need to know their loved ones are safe. It's moments like this that being able to connect really matters.
My thoughts are with everyone who's been caught up in this tragedy.
https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/nepalearthquake

Chris is our Chief Product Officer, one of my closest friends and someone who truly makes Facebook special.
Over the years, Chris has had a huge impact on our community and culture. Chris joined as an engineer on the team that built the first News Feed. Then he led HR and helped define our culture and build our teams across Facebook. Now he oversees how we design all Facebook products to serve our community. He still gives a talk at new hire orientation every week to inspire everyone here with what it means to connect the world.
Chris, thank you for being an amazing friend and partner, and for everything you do to make the world more open and connected.
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marc z am 071115 via fb

Last month we completed Aquila,

our unmanned aircraft that can beam internet connectivity from the sky to remote communities.
Building Aquila meant solving a lot of engineering challenges. To design an aircraft that can fly 60,000 feet in the air for months at a time, we needed to make it extremely light and efficient. So we built the airframe from carbon fiber, which is stronger than steel but very light. Aquila has the wingspan of a 737 but weighs less than a car.
Here’s a photo of one of Aquila’s propellers, which is also made of carbon fiber. It's optimized to convert electrical energy from our batteries into flight at altitudes almost twice as high as a passenger jet. ... marc z via fb am 200815

Our community now has more than 1.59 billion people.

More than 1 billion people use Groups. Almost 1 billion people use WhatsApp. More than 19 million people who previously had no internet access are now connected through Internet.org.
In 2015 people came together in many different ways on Facebook. We celebrated happy moments, from the Indian Super League to the release of Star Wars. Millions of people rallied to support Nepal after the earthquake, France after the Paris attacks and all those affected by the refugee crisis. And every day, hundreds of millions of people just used Facebook to connect with loved ones.
Thank you for being a part of our community, and for helping to connect the world.

marc z am 280116

February 4 is Facebook’s 12th birthday!

Our anniversary has a lot of meaning to me as an opportunity to reflect on how far we've come together as a community.
When I wrote the first code for Facebook in January 2004, I hoped it would help students at my college connect and bring our community together. Today more than 1.5 billion people around the world use Facebook to stay connected with friends and loved ones.
The acts of friendship, love and kindness we all share on Facebook are changing the world every day in ways we can't fully measure. Sometimes they just make people in our lives feel a bit more loved. Sometimes friendship becomes a force that sets us on a different path in life. Sometimes friendship moves the world.
On February 4, I hope you'll join me in celebrating ‪#‎friendsday‬ -- a moment to celebrate the friendships that have made a difference in your life. If you have a story about friendship, I'd love to hear it. Please share in the comments below and I'll read as many of them as I can!

marc z am 120116

We just announced our quarterly earnings

and gave an update on our community's progress to connect the world.
Our community now has more than 1.55 billion people, including more than 1 billion people active every day. Through Internet.org, more than 15 million people now have access to the opportunities of the Internet who didn't before.
In the last three months, we've also announced our first aircraft to beam down internet access, our first satellite launch to deliver connectivity, an AI-powered digital assistant and our first Oculus virtual reality consumer release.
Our community has a lot to be proud of.
Thank you for being a part of our community, and for helping to connect the world.

marc z am 051115 via fb

VR via oculus rift

After years of development, our virtual reality experience, Oculus Rift, is now available for pre-order!
When you put on Oculus, you'll feel like you instantly teleported into adventures like deep-sea diving, piloting a starfighter or playing in a band on stage. More than 100 virtual reality games and other experiences are coming this year. And long term, I believe virtual reality has the potential to change the way we live, work and communicate in many ways. Today is an important step towards that future.
You can pre-order your Oculus Rift for $599 at shop.oculus.com and we’ll be shipping at the end of March to 20 countries initially.
Oculus Rift is the product of years of cutting edge research and engineering. I'm proud to work with Palmer, Brendan, Nate, Michael and everyone who has worked so hard to open up new worlds for us. ... marc z am 060116

Today Priscilla and I

are announcing a $75 million contribution to support the San Francisco General Hospital.
We believe everyone deserves access to high quality health care. The General is the main public hospital in San Francisco, and it is an important safety net for our community. More than 70% of the families it serves are uninsured or underinsured. It is open to anyone who lives, works in or visits the city.
Priscilla has served at The General over the past couple of years, completing her medical residency as a pediatrician. Every day she has worked with the amazing doctors and nurses making a difference in people's lives. Her experience serving our community has only deepened our commitment to help these families.
We are so fortunate that our work in connecting the world through Facebook has given us the ability to give back to our local community, our country and the world -- and to work to improve education, health care and internet access for everyone. To serve our community in San Francisco, we can think of no better place to focus than The General.
To add some specifics, our contribution today will allow The General to double the size of its new Emergency Room and quadruple the number of beds, and provide state of the art equipment for healthcare providers and first responders.
We hope this contribution alongside the great work of other contributors, will help The General to continue to save lives and deliver care to everyone who needs it.
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marc z am 0602 via fb

Today we moved into our new Facebook building in Menlo Park, Ca.

Our goal was to create the perfect engineering space for our teams to work together. We wanted our space to create the same sense of community and connection among our teams that we try to enable with our services across the world.
To do this, we designed the largest open floor plan in the world — a single room that fits thousands of people. There are lots of small spaces where people can work together, and it’s easy for people to move around and collaborate with anyone here. On the roof is a 9-acre park with walking trails and many outdoor spaces to sit and work.
The building itself is pretty simple and isn’t fancy. That’s on purpose. We want our space to feel like a work in progress. When you enter our buildings, we want you to feel how much left there is to be done in our mission to connect the world.
I’ll share more photos and stories about this building once we’re fully unpacked, but for now here’s one taken flying over the green roof.
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marc z am 300315

This has been a good year for connecting the world.

Internet.org Free Basics is now available in more than 30 countries, and more than 15 million people who were previously unconnected are now using the internet because of these efforts.
Research shows that for every 10 people who get access to the internet, about one person gets lifted out of poverty. That means our community's work to connect the world may already lift more than 1 million people out of poverty around the world. That's a big deal, and a good start.
As we wrap up the year, I want to share one more milestone: we've launched Internet.org Free Basics in Mexico. Now the half of the population who are unconnected will have free access to internet services for education, health, jobs and communication on the Virgin Mobile network.
Connecting Mexico is personally important to me. I have many friends and neighbors with family there, and many families Priscilla works with come from Mexico. I believe spreading internet access will not only create opportunities in Mexico, but also create more understanding of this great country and its people. When we build ties between people and cultures, we can tear down the walls some try to build in the face of progress.
This photo is of Raúl Mejía Rivera. He owns a restaurant in La Merced market in Mexico City and uses Facebook and WhatsApp to promote his restaurant and receive orders.
One day everyone will have access to the opportunities of the internet. Our community's work this year has brought that day closer. Thank you for all your support and I'm looking forward to continuing this journey with you.

No matter what part of Facebook you join,

you'll be building something big and new.
You won't simply be finding answers;
you'll be framing questions that no one has ever asked before
- and identifying unprecedented opportunities.
We welcome pioneers. In fact, we insist on them.